A Summer at Camp Kikakee
by Akimi Kono
Summary: Tammy is 18 and helping Nurse St. Cloud at all-boys Camp Kikakee. She meets counselor Brooks, Richard Speight Jr's character canonically, and soon finds herself going off on unsupervised adventures with him. Can she keep her act together at Camp though, or else be sent home for rowdy and inappropriate behavior? Ernest Goes to Camp fanfic. BrooksxOC. May go from T to M later.


**A/N: **Hey guys! I recently watched Ernest Goes to Camp with baby!Speight and it made me really want to become a camp counselor. Anyways, I started this story about a girl who goes to Camp Kikakee to help out with Nurse St. Cloud and meets Brooks (baby!Speight). What can I say? Summer lovin'.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ernest Goes to Camp, any other part of the franchise, movies, toys, whatever else you have, etc. I only own my OC. Ya!

**P.S. Okay so my character's name is Kendra, but she specifically requests to be called Tammy. This may seem strange but will be explained later on. So don't think it's some weird variation of her name or something. It has a meaning. **

**ALSO: I'm not making fun of camp food, but if any of you have seen the movie, you'll understand why Tammy's so hesitant to eat it.**

Please enjoy! R&R. All my love~

* * *

"Kendra! Kendra!"

I glanced up from my trunk over towards the man tripping over himself to get to me. He ran into a couple of other people, apologizing profusely before reaching me. He grinned brightly and gave me a tight hug.

"It's so good to see you, Kendra!"

I groaned, trying to breathe but to no avail. My cheek was pressed against his chest. The bone of his shoulder was shoved against my cheekbone and part of my eye. I held my breath, trying not to turn red in the face. Finally he let me go and I dropped to the ground. I gasped for air as I greeted him.

"It's nice to see you too Ernest," I smiled softly at him. "But I asked you to call me Tammy."

"Oh! Right! I'm sorry Kend – Tammy. I keep forgetting."

I nodded, "It's all right."

"Hey Ernest." My dad came around the van with a bag slung over his shoulder.

"Hello Mr. Iver. Are you staying for the summer too?" he asked with eagerness, eying the bag.

"No, it's just another one of Kendra's bags."

"Wow! She brought a lot didn't she?"

I shrugged, "Summer's a long time. I need to be prepared."

Ernest grinned and nodded. "That's right! Always be prepared. I'm sure glad you'll be with us at camp this year."

I was going to respond when two boys walked by. They looked to be 16 or so years old and both of them looked me up and down.

"They're letting girls be counselors this year?" one asked. "It's a boys' camp!"

The other one just stared at me. They stopped in their passing to confront me and I knit my eyebrows together in confusion and slight anxiety. Great, my first day at camp and I was going to be harassed. Ernest looked over his shoulder then faced them, smiling widely.

"Hey boys!"

"Hey Ernest," the previously silent one said, keeping his eyes on me. He held his hand. "I'm Brooks."

I hesitantly took his hand in mine and shook it. It was larger than mine and I could feel calluses obviously from where he'd worked, mostly like doing camp stuff. "I'm Tammy."

"Nice to meet you Tammy."

"Yeah, nice to meet you Tammy," the other one sneered. I frowned slightly. "I'm Pennington."

"...okay."

"So are you a counselor?"

"No."

"What are you?" Brooks piped up.

"I'm going to be helping Nurse St. Cloud. I'm also supposed to help fix up cabins before the boys get here."

"What cabin are you going to be staying in?"

"Arrowhead."

"That's the cabin next to ours," Brooks said, motioning loosely to the kid next to him. "So I guess we'll be neighbors... kinda."

"Yeah I guess so." I smiled at him. He was kind of cute – and pretty nice. We stood in a moment of silence while everyone around us impatiently waited for parting words. Finally my dad chipped in.

"Alright! So now that we've met your new neighbors, how about we go check out your new house?"

"Oh yeah. Sure." I bit my lip but ended up smiling at Brooks. "See you around."

"Yeah, you too." His friend grabbed his arm and dragged him off. I took a moment to watch them walk off, Pennington punching Brooks in the arm and cursing him out for being so nice to me. I turned around to grab the rest of my bags from the trunk then we made our way to my cabin.

We kicked up a dust storm on our way to the cabins. Finally we reached Arrowhead and Ernest quickly pushed open the creaky plank door. We stepped into the dark building. It was warm and smelled of wood, but I guess you can expect that from a log building. I put all of my bags on the single bed and glanced around. Enough room to put my things and then some. I got the entire room to myself, since other than Nurse St. Cloud, I'd be the only girl here. Since it was a boys' camp, they weren't too keen to make my habitat a co-ed room. Originally the room had been furnished with 2 bunk beds plus an oak chest, but now there was only a twin bed pushed against a wall. The chest still remained and was underneath the window closest the bed.

I smiled at my dad and gave him a hug around the neck.

"Thanks daddy."

"Sure thing pumpkin. Now if anything happens and you want to come home – or if nothing happens and you want to come home – you can call us and we'll pick you up."

"Thanks."

"So you got all your stuff?"

"Yes."

"You sure?"

"Yep! I'm all set."

"Alright. Well I guess that's it then. See you after summer, hon, or before then if you decide to come home early."

"I think I'll be alright."

He kissed my forehead. "Okay. See you later Kenny Mey."

I wrinkled up my nose at the nickname and waved him away. He departed and I waved my farewell from the doorway. Once the car had disappeared over the hill and through the woods in a cloud of dust, I turned back to my room.

I had the whole day to decorate it the way I wanted it. No one to tell me what I could or couldn't hang on the walls, the music I was allowed to play, the books I could leave scattered on the floor. But until I'd have the room my way, it'd seem too empty. I better get started soon to feel like home. This was going to be fun.

I handed a box to Ernest who held it tightly, determined now to drop it. I was afraid he'd crush it instead.

"It's gonna be a great summer, Tammy. I can feel it."

I shook out my quilt, dust and rocks spilling onto the floor. Did I bring a broom? Maybe I could borrow one from the supply closet in the registration office.

"Sounds like it'll be great," I commented, placing the folded quilt on the end of the bed.

"We've got swimmin' and canoein' and nature hikes and beadin' and all sorts of bravery tests."

"Sounds like you've got a full schedule."

"Oh no, not me." He laughed, "The kids maybe, but not me."

I tilted my head at him as I folded a jacket over my arm. "You're not a counselor this year, Ernest?"

"Oh no. Not this year. Maybe next year."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, definitely next year. I can feel it."

"Wow! You can feel it too?"

I laughed, "Yeah."

"Woo. See? I knew we were connected Tammy. You and I – two peas in a pod. It's a shame we both can't be counselors. Maybe next year."

I nodded again. "Maybe. But I don't think they'll let a girl be a counselor at a boys' camp."

"Well they've already let you come!"

"To help with Nurse St. Cloud."

"So maybe next year you'll be a counselor. Stranger things have happened."

"You are definitely right."

He grinned. "Oh!" He turned his wrist to check his watch and the box slipped. He tried to grab it but it fell to the ground with a rather loud crash. "I'm... I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright Ernest," I stated kindly, striding over and picking up the box. One corner had been crushed considerably and there was a dent near the bottom of the same side. "Don't worry about it. What were you going to say?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh... it's about grub time. You wanna go get some food?"

I nodded once firmly. "I'd love it."

"Okay! Let's go!"

I looped my arm through his and we carefully but clumsily made our way to the mess hall.

* * *

We entered the mess hall together and scanned the room. There were at least a dozen counselors and supervisors. Ernest let go of my arm and stood in front of me, staring intently into my eyes.

"Alright there, missy. This here is your first day back at camp. Since this is your first meal here this summer, what can I get you?"

"That's okay, Ernest, I can get it myself."

"Oh, no. I won't have it. You are to be treated as royalty from now until the end of the day, since you are the only girl here, other than Nurse St. Cloud. England has a queen, you know, and a queen's royalty. So what can I get you?"

I laughed, "Um..." I bit my lip and narrowed my eyes, inhaling sharply through my teeth. "I don't know. Surprise me."

He grinned back at me and nodded. "I can do that! One, uh, 'surprise' meal coming right up!" He scurried off to the lunch line and I scouted around until I found a place to sit at one of the long tables. I picked at the chipping paint of the tabletop while I waited. Every now and then I'd look up to see Ernest slowly moving his way up the line.

At this rate, it'd take half an hour to get any food. Not that I was too keen on eating camp food anyways. I turned back to picking at the paint. It flaked away under my fingers and a few bits stuck to my nails. I rubbed my index finger and thumb together to get rid of any remaining specks of brown paint. There were a few resilient flakes that remained embedded under my fingernails.

"Hey."

My head turned up towards the noise rather quickly. Brooks was standing on the other side of my table, holding a lunch tray and staring at me. My face burned.

"Hi."

"It's Tammy, right?"

"Yeah. And you're Brooks?"

"Yeah." He gave a half smile. "Do you mind if I sit here?" He motioned to the seat directly across from me.

"No, go ahead."

"Thanks." He set his tray down and lifted his legs over the bench and almost gracefully managed to get into his seat. He scooted forward a bit on the bench to get comfortable, which would quite a feat on the hard wood. I felt myself blush even more. He had long, slim legs and was wearing red short shorts and he looked _good_. I tried to push that thought out of my head as he opened his milk carton and took a swig, glancing at me over the top of the cardboard container.

"Aren't you going to get anything to eat?" he asked as he placed the carton back on the tray.

"Oh yeah. Someone's getting me something."

Slight confusion and what appeared to be defeat flashed through his eyes. "Oh that's nice," he murmured quietly.

I squinted my eyes, unsure of why his mood suddenly changed. I was going to ask him what was wrong when out of nowhere an arm appeared and set a tray down before me. I jumped, swallowed a scream and turned to the right where the arm had retreated.

Ernest sat down next to me with his own tray and nodded.

"There you go my lady. A surprise meal just for you."

"Thanks Ernest, I really appreciate it," my voice cracked. I surveyed the tray and its various contents. I'd be surprised if I didn't die tonight. It was okay. I was working with the nurse. She could pump stomachs right? They had the instruments here for that right?

"Hm. I need a spoon," I mused aloud after noticing that most of my meal was in some sort of liquid state.

"I'll get it," Ernest and Brooks said at the same time. I just stared wide-eyed at my food.

"I'll get it," Ernest repeated kindly, shifting in his seat, "after all it's my civic duty since you're our guest."

"I can get it," Brooks shot back, "after all, you already got her food."

"No, no, no. Don't you worry. I'll go get the spoon -"

"I've got it!" Brooks stated sharply, standing up and swinging his legs over the bench. He looked back at us, "I mean since I'm already standing... I'll go get the spoon."

"Okay. If you insist," Ernest shrugged. Brooks gave a hopeful glance towards me and hurried off to retrieve the utensil.

"Jeez," I sighed, "I didn't know getting a spoon was such a big deal. I could have just gotten it."

"Don't be silly, Tammy. We're happy to get you anything you need. Brooks was probably just eager to show you how kind and gentlemanly the boys here are. Good first impressions."

"Yeah...maybe..." I eyed the brown liquid in a thick paper bowl. I'm pretty sure it was soup. And I'm pretty sure it moved.

Before long Brooks returned with a spoon. He reached over the table to hand it to me. I went to grab it and our fingers touched. I didn't have a hold on it so when Brooks suddenly flinched and let go, the spoon clattered on the table.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, grabbing it off the table, "I didn't mean to drop it."

"That's fine," I said calmly, reaching again for the spoon. This time I made sure our hands didn't touch as I grabbed the bowl part. I tugged gently but Brooks had a death grip on it. I tugged again but he was holding it too tightly. I looked up at him and stared him in the eyes. I saw him swallow.

"Thank you." I pulled again and he let go of the spoon. He slowly sat back down and ate his food meekly. I cast a glance every now and again at him as I ate my variety of thick and thin liquids piled both in bowls and on plates. Every time I looked at him, he was looking right back. I felt my heart flutter and my stomach flip. I just wasn't sure if it was from him or the food.


End file.
